Blade Radius for Vertical Wind Turbine

Can't really answer this question properly. The larger the radius, the greater the torque, but the more fragile the rotor becomes. You need to specify other relevant factors such as wind speed etc to be able to get a better answer.

what I ment ,not the radius to say,but the cureiture of the blade [paddle] .

will say 30 degree would grab more wind power of 60 degree.

tks

john

There is just tons of stuff on this topic... Hugh Piggot-Smith has done a good book on this. There are loads of plans.... this site has tons of links..click on the DIY renewable energy down the left side of the screen, there will be enough to keep you going for at least a day!

Del

Thanks Del. This apperars to be a great site dealing with many renewable resources.

Try this site about Savonius rotors. (They have a Java simulator, but I haven't played with it.)

Hi Bill..

Fun site!

Here's the Sandia National Labs site I was looking for concerning vertical wind turbines. I was involved in a vertical wind turbine project about twenty years ago which used two 30' long helicopter blades, but it wasn't self-starting. (I looked into adding a Savonius rotor to the system rather than having to monitor average wind speed and using a diesel engine starter motor to crank it up.)

Here's some technical poop on two and three bucket Savonius rotors tested in low-speed wind tunnel by Sandia Labs.